Monday, January 5, 2009

The hair says it all

The holidays are over, we had a sick-fest in our house through the holidays!! Everyone is getting better and we are now moving on to a happy and healthy 2009! The boys are both doing great and we are coming along in our adventures with Grayson's health!

We've decided to test his hair for toxic metals, it will tell us what the elements in his hair are and that will indicate, if there were any heavy metals responsible for malabsorption of certain elements. We are reading a great book called Children with Starving Brains, what an eye-opener! I am learning that the cause for many of these issues (food allergies, SPD, lack of enzyme production, ADHD, ASD, yeast overgrowth) is often undetected heavy metals in the system. If a person cannot metabolize them, they just build up with each offender (a mother's silver fillings - of which I have SEVEN, EMF from power lines - we used to live UNDER them, vaccinations - which he reacted to at 12 months old, the list is unfortunately endless). Mercury is one of the worst metals to introduce to a child who cannot metabolize metals, it is one of the most toxic metals in the universe! It passes through the blood-brain barrier and causes neurotoxic responses. Mercury in the brain just stays there!! It remains in other tissues as well, such as the organs. So when you think you are repairing the problem by removing allergen foods, offering supplements, detoxing the liver, treating yeast...well, if mercury is the cause, you are just pedaling in reverse. You are swimming against the current! You will never get to the cause of the problems without removing the heavy metals. So while we don't KNOW that this is our problem, it's certainly worth investigating, so today we are sending in a good sized portion of the hair from the nape of his head to a lab for testing. If he does in fact show signs of heavy metals, we will need to begin the process of detoxing (AKA - chelation) his body of the metals. This is a process that can take years, but will ultimately reverse the effects of excess metals in the system.

In the meantime, nursing a baby when a mother has excessive silver fillings exposes the infant to mercury as well, so I have recently learned that taking an additional 100mcg of selenium daily will provide the mercury with a place to bind. They are opposing ions so mercury is attracted to selenium. By giving the mercury a place to bind, it loses the ability to attach to the tissues in the body. Here's to hoping...

2 comments:

Vanessa said...

You made a comment several weeks ago about Grayson craving the foods he was allergic to. That kept ringing in my head over and over again b/c my daughter is allergic to milk and she was craving her soy cheese, so much so that she was having temper tantrums about not getting it. (She is 23m). Well I looked at the packaging and everything looked and read fine (No Milk or milk products) Well I go to the store again today and there it is on the back of the label contains milk, now is stated!!! I was so shocked, but it all made sense to me. So I found yet another new soy cheese that does not contain milk (at least) to this point and time. So Great job with the blog, keep up the good work.

Jessica said...

Thank you! I am glad you were able to hunt down the true ingredients on that packaging. There are so many hidden ingredients associated with casein. Just a word of caution too, watch her for reactions to soy which shares the same protein structure as milk. If it is the protein she is allergic to with milk, she will likely develop the same allergy to soy. It's just something to watch for, especially with continued use. We are led to believe that kids NEED milk when in fact, they don't. We are the only species that drinks another animal's milk and the only species to drink milk beyond weaning. Our bodies are actually not even made to have the enzymes that digest milk, into adulthood! Vegetables contain significantly more calcium than milk. And cow's milk is "fortified" with vitamin D. With the right diet and supplementation, milk and all of it's replacements can ultimately be avoided safely.

Thanks for following my blog, I am happy to have been able to help you!